Happy Birthday! - Part 1
Regulus woke up feeling very strange as if something wasn't right, but since Regulus usually felt bad in general he didn't care, he had actually slept very well, without any nightmares and anxiety, which hadn't happened in a long time and he really wanted to go back to his sleep, but when he couldn't go back to sleep, he opened his eyes and saw white walls with posters that clearly weren't part of the Slytherin dorm, on a dark wooden table and on top of it were two black boxes one in the shape of a square and another in the shape of a flat rectangle with several other black square boxes inside.
Boxes he had never seen before but that wasn't even the worst part, the worst part was that he was in a individual room, there are no individual rooms for students at Hogwarts.
Oh Merlin this was bad, where was he?
Regulus was in the middle of an anxiety attack when the door to the room he was in was kicked open and Regulus shuddered.
Sirius entered the room.
Salazar…Sirius entered the room!
But was it really Sirius? Had Sirius kidnapped him? Did he finally come to save him from their parents?
Sirius looked at him with a look of astonishment but after a short while the astonishment turned into a playful smile.
"How long have you been awake?" Sirius asked too casually for Regulus's liking. Sirius spoke as if the brothers saw each other every day, which greatly upset Regulus. How could Sirius act like their relationship was perfectly fine?
"Why are you talking to me like that?" Regulus asked in a strained, monotone voice.
Sirius makes a confused face and smiles.
"How do you want me to talk to you, weirdo?"
What the hell? How could Sirius treat him like that? They hadn't had a normal conversation in over two years. Sirius wasn't the type of person to just ignore the past, he was quite the opposite in fact. Regulus would know all about it.
Regulus looked into his older brother's eyes for the first time in a while, Sirius was wearing a short-sleeved shirt and...
Merlin!
Where were Sirius' scars? This wasn't something Sirius could get rid of or cure, it also couldn't be polyjuice since if it was the scars would also be on his body. So who was this? It was clear that it was Sirius, but it was clearly not Regulus' Sirius.
Salazar!
Was he sent to another world?
"Nothing, I'm just sleepy." Regulus invented it. He decided not to cause drama, if his theory is right, Regulus would prefer not to ruin his other version's life, after all the other Regulus had Sirius and maybe he is a little selfish and wanted to enjoy having Sirius for a little while, even if it was just a little bit.
Sirius laughed and hugged Regulus, who thought that was going to start crying at any moment.
"Happy Birthday Reg!" Sirius lets go of the hug and strokes Regulus's curls in a violent but at the same time affectionate way.
Oh! Was it his birthday?
Was it already November 27th? He swore it was still the beginning of the month, but honestly Regulus hadn't checked the days of the month in a while.
" Papa made your favorite." Sirius says
What?
Regulus was really going to start crying, how come their father performed loving acts with them, to be sincere since when did their father speak to them?
"Orion?" Regulus asks almost in a whisper and Sirius laughs.
"Obviously, who else would it be? And why the fuck are you calling father by his name? Did you guys have a fight?"
Regulus didn't know what to do, so he took a deep breath and held back the tears he felt forming in the corners of his eyes.
"No, it was a stupid question, I just had a dream where our family wasn't our family, so..." Regulus lied and was honestly a little impressed with how quickly the lie came out of his mouth.
"Oh no! That would be horrible, can you imagine a good life without your mother and father?-" Sirius asked and Regulus knew his answer without even having to think.
Yes.
"I mean, Aunt Druella, Grandfather Arcturus and Bellatrix could disappear from this planet and I wouldn't mind at all, but the rest are indispensable, even Great Aunt Cassiopeia." Sirius continued to ramble for a while. "But whatever, was that why you woke up earlier than usual?" he asked, shiny grey eyes meeting Regulus's again.
"Sure..." Regulus replied a little dazed.
"So... what are you going to do for your special day?" Sirius asks excitedly and bumps Regulus' arm with his elbow.
"I don't know...what do you think I should do?" Regulus turned the question back to Sirius. He really didn't want to think about his birthday right now.
"I talked to Maman about it and she suggested that after school we have birthday lunch with the whole family and during the afternoon and maybe evening a party with your friends and Lily, but you already know that I'll probably drag at least three of my friends with me, which-" Sirius continued talking and Regulus couldn't hear anything, he was in shock.
Regulus was confused, why the hell was it guaranteed that he would invite Evans? That didn't even make sense, the only reason Regulus knew about Evans' existence was because of Potter's public declarations of love. Was he her friend in this universe? Does this mean there's a chance that Regulus's friends aren't your friends here? Regulus doesn't think he could survive a day without his friends, especially Dorcas and Barty, but he would die before admitting it to their faces.
"Why would I invite Lily?" Regulus asked in what he hoped was an innocent tone and Sirius stopped talking immediately and looked at Regulus with wide eyes.
"Oh God!" Sirius exclaimed, which worried Regulus, what the hell did he do wrong for Sirius to scream an octave higher? But on the other hand he felt proud for being right in his theory of being in another universe, Sirius never said 'Oh God' only 'Oh Merlin', 'Oh Salazar', 'Oh Godic' and 'Oh Hecate', this was probably a universe where they were all muggles. Regulus didn't know how to feel about this.
"Did you guys broke up?" Sirius put a hand to his lips when he finished the question, as if it was something unthinkable and utterly depressing.
Oh...so Regulus was dating the older girl. OK. All good. From what he remembers, she was actually quite pretty. It's funny to think about the irony of the situation, if he were in his universe and dating Evans he would probably be disinherited and she would be dead.
"No, of course not... I..." It took Regulus a while to come up with a convincing excuse. "I just thought I didn't even need to invite Lily, I thought it was a guaranteed invite." Regulus said.
"But if we follow that logic, the only people who would have to be invited would be my friends. Are you sure everything is okay between you two?" Sirius retorted.
"Everything is fine between us Sirius, I would break up with her if it wasn't." Which is true, Regulus is sure that his personality couldn't have changed much and Regulus never did anything he didn't want to. "Just ignoring what I asked was stupid."
Sirius stares at him for a moment longer, but takes a deep breath and smiles again.
"Okay, but you know you can talk to me, right?"
No, Regulus doesn't know!
"Yes, it's okay."
"Okay, get dressed, mother will be upset if you're not up in a moment. You already know she doesn't care if it's your birthday, she hates us being late for school. That woman!" Sirius informs or complains, Regulus can't tell, because when Sirius talks about their mother it seems like there is affection behind those words. Regulus never thought he would see Sirius talk about their mother like that.
"Don't worry, I won't take long."
Sirius nods and leaves the room. Regulus looks around to better analyze the room he was in. There is nothing else in it, just some creations that Regulus had never seen before, he assumed they were muggle creations.
Regulus got up from the bed to walk to the closet next to the sectary with the black boxes. The clothes inside the closet were way out of Regulus's comfort zone, they were pretty, really pretty, but he had never worn anything like that before.
There were short shirts, long-sleeved shirts, some lace and some with high collars. Band t-shirts, Regulus knew this because the shirts looked like the ones Sirius had when he still lived in Grimmauld Place. In the first drawer inside the closet there were underwear, belts, scarves and gloves, in the second drawer there were pants of various types. some more relaxed, too relaxed for Regulus's taste, a pair of jeans, some black and white bell-bottoms and black dress pants, in the third drawer there were pajamas and in the last drawer there was a paper on top of all the clothes that said: 'LILY'S CLOTHES, DON'T TOUCH REGULUS!’ Regulus doesn't know why but he felt himself blush at the thought of a girl's clothes being in something private of his, but he doesn't touch anything like the paper asked.
In the end Regulus decided to wear a long-sleeved black collared shirt, dress pants and a band t-shirt that had the name 'Billie Eilish' with green details in the letters and he put on a black belt with a silver snake.
The door that led to the bathroom was near a low-end piano, when he entered the bathroom he found nothing special, on top of the counter there was a glass box with silver rings and earrings and a bag with constellations.
Regulus washed his face and teeth, put on some random rings on because to be honest they were all very beautiful and took the first comb he saw to comb his hair, there were two bottles of perfume, one pink in the shape of a heart and the other was a long black and blue bottle, Regulus put on that perfume, he opened the bag with the constellations drawn on it and inside there was makeup that Regulus obviously thought was Lily's.
Regulus was finally about to leave the room when a black box on the bedside table began to play a lively rhythm and glowed. You only had to look at Regulus once to know he was scared out of his mind. Magic? Was that magic? Regulus walked over to it and the name 'Barty' was on the box with a red and a green glowing button. Regulus didn't know what to do but he clicked the green button, because he would never touch the red one, which might be a little annoying of him, but whatever.
"Reg," Barty's voice says from the box. Regulus was even more startled, but he answered. Muggles really were interesting.
"Hm..." He replied, not sure if Barty could hear him.
"Happy birthday!" Barty shouted. It was incredible that Regulus could imagine what Barty's face looked like at the moment without seeing him.
"Thanks Barty."
"Are you ok?" Barty asked less excitedly
"Yes?"
"Okay," the boy on the other end of the line exclaimed in a suspicious tone of voice.
"Hm"
"Have you talked to Lily today?" Barty asked.
"No, not yet." Regulus responds without interest.
"Okay, she texted you." Barty informs Regulus.
Text? What does that mean? He didn't received any letter. Maybe it's different for muggles?
"Okay, I'll check."
Regulus left the room and followed the voices he heard, probably from his family in the dining room. He was right. As soon as he appeared at the dining room door, his entire family looked happy. Regulus never thought he would see this. Regulus' mother had a sad face, but when she saw Regulus she gave him a loving smile, went over to him and kissed his cheek and Regulus was sure he was going to start crying. Their mother was never this loving. Why did this Regulus have everything he wanted and he could have nothing? After the kiss on the cheek her frown was back. Orion looked at the situation with an amused smile.
"Regulus Arcturus Black, you're late." Walburga scolded in a stern voice.
"I told you~" Regulus heard Sirius hum softly.
"Sorry maman. It won't happen again." Regulus replied with the coldest voice he could manage after the amount of emotions he had just felt.
"Very well. It's not like you to be late, did something happen?" Her voice was filled with concern that Regulus had never heard directed at him or anyone else, really.
"Leave the boy Walburga alone, it's his birthday!" Orion registered.
Walburga sighed.
"Very well! Happy birthday Regulus." Walburga exclaimed and carefully stroked Regulus's hair.
Orion got up from the chair he was sitting in, stood in front of Regulus and patted Regulus' arm.
"Happy birthday son."
"Thank you papa”
Orion nods and turns to look at Sirius.
"Have you wished your brother a happy birthday yet, Sirius?"
"Isn't that obvious, papa?"
They all sat down to have breakfast.
Apparently what Sirius said was true because it was Orion who made the food for the first meal of the day which was apparently this version of Regulus' favorite and Regulus had to admit that it was actually very good, it looked like a chocolate cake, but Sirius called the dish bownies, he ate that brownie with a bowl of strawberries and orange juice.
The trip to school was calm except for the fact that Regulus discovered that apparently they were not in 1977 but in 2024, it was a very strange situation, but at least he got information from it. Sirius was complaining about how people like that existed in the 21st century. What people? Regulus had no idea, he only knew that when Sirius said that, Regulus shouted a loud 'What' that even Orion who was driving the car turned around, which earned a laugh from Sirius and Sirius' exact words 'Yes. November 27, 2024 in the 21st century. Will you smoke something without me Regulus?' which resulted in a 'Beware of Sirius manners!' of Orion. After the shock it wasn't hard to believe it, he traveled between universes, why wouldn't time travel be possible?
Now Regulus knew he had to adapt not only to Muggle culture, but to the other timeline almost fifty years apart.
Regulus really didn't know whether he should be happy and grateful with this exchange of universes or desperate.